Click on any of the pictures to
be taken to detailed pages for
the toilets of that country.

Belgium

These open-air toilets are on the side of
Saint Catherine's Cathedral in
Brussels, Belgium.

Other
Belgian plumbing
details shown on the
dedicated page
include a second cathedral, this one in
Saint-Hubert
in the Ardennes region of southern Belgium,
with a sign prohibiting urinating against the
side of the church.
There is no single rule in Belgium about church urination;
sometimes it is encouraged and sometimes it is prohibited.

A picture from the
Mappa Mundo
bar in
Brussels
shows the typically Belgian
open urinal and common washing area.

There are pictures of toilets on board
Belgian trains,
from the high speed Thalys to
regional trains in the Ardennes.

That's right, a small statue of a peeing boy is one of the
most popular tourist attractions in Belgium.
Mannikin Pis has recently been joined by
Jeanneke Pis,
the
Peeing Girl
statue, and
Zennike Pis,
the
Peeing Dog
statue.
They are all plumbed for realistic operation.

Britain

Britain
is a diverse island, with three nations
(England,
Scotland,
and Wales) and history going back to the Stone Age.

This toilet
is much more recent, but it still dates back
to the 19th Century.
It is in a museum display case, as it's an example
of 19th Century Scottish industrial output at the
National Museum in
Edinburgh.

But my British toilet collection is broader than most,
as it includes plenty of historical British plumbing.
The earliest British toilets may be some of the
most ancient toilets in existence.
The Neolithic settlement of
Skara Brae
is on the Orkney Islands north of Scotland.
The settlement includes what are believed to be toilets
attached to each of the eight interconnected dwellings.
Skara Brae dates back to 3500-2100 BC.

Bulgaria

This first one is in the upstairs dorm at the
Be My Guest hostel in
Sofia, Bulgaria.

Notice the stylish vessel sink.
Toilets in Bulgaria often seem like those in
trendy bars and restaurants in New York.

If you insist on seeing a picture of a bad
Bulgarian toilet, here is one.
However, this one is decommissioned,
awaiting repair and replacement.
It is in a closed public toilet in
Велико
Търново,
or
Veliko Târnovo.

China

Chinese toilets,
at least those in the
People's Republic of China,
can be highly communal.
There is no place for privacy in a totalitarian state
striving for the completely collectivist society.
These are in
Guangzhou,
the large city formerly known in the West as Canton.

Places catering to foreign visitors, like
Yangshuo,
in
Guangxi Province,
can be a little nicer.
This Yangshuo squatter is nice and highly westernized,
as far as Chinese toilets go.

Egypt

This pit toilet is constructed from local rubble,
just below the summit of
Mount Sinai
in
Egypt.

It's not actually from the era of Moses,
thought to be approximately 1450 BC,
but the mountain has been a major
pilgrimage site at least since when the
Byzantine Empress Helena (ruled 313-328 AD)
established a monastery at the base of the mountain.

Greek Islands

The Blu-Blu cafe / lounge / bar / Internet cafe
is a nice place on the island of
Mykonos.
You can get on the net or transfer pictures from
your camera to a USB stick.
And, while you're there,
use the toilet and wash your hands.

Visiting the
Greek islands
means traveling between the islands on the ferries.
This scenic head is on board the F/B Artemis
en route from
Ios
to
Santorini
in the Aegean.

Hong Kong

The Chungking Mansions are a dilapidated tenement block.
The upper floors contain several budget guesthouses
and some really good curry shops.
The Chungking Mansions are a fine place to eat and sleep,
but the public toilets are dire.

The
Hong Kong toilet
page has some more pictures of the Chungking Mansions,
and links to lots more pictures from my trips to Hong Kong.

Hungary

This bright green public toilet is in a small
neighborhood park in
Budapest.

Magyar, the language spoken in Hungary, is unlike any other
European language.
The words for Men's and Women's are
Férfiak and Nök, respectively.
At least the word for Toilet is the obvious
Toalett.

Italy

Italy
is another place with ancient toilets.
The first one shown here is the public latrine
next to Pompey's portico in
Rome.
This portico was used for meetings of the Roman Senate,
and is where Julius Caesar was assassinated on
15 March 44 BC.

The second is the indoor toilet from the famous
two-story brothel, the Lupanaro,
in
Pompeii.

Japan

Luxury hotels in
Japan
often have the fancy Japanese toilets with electrically
heated seats and complicated built-in bidet functions.

I was in Japan on business,
and the company had put me up at the Hotel Intercontinental
in the Shinjūkū district.
It wasn't the hotel in "Lost in Translation"
but it might as well have been, right down to the bathroom.

The toilet had a couple of dials and some push buttons,
and the inside of the seat had a multi-paragraph manual
explaining its operation.

Unfortunately, the operating instructions were only in Japanese.
The only English warned that you shouldn't break the toilet
or urinate all over the seat.
But that's always good advice!

It's very psychedelic, but blacklight toilet
illumination is generally done to prevent
the use of intravenous drugs.
You can't see your blood vessels under nothing
but ultraviolet or just deep blue lighting.

This is the new design for public urinals along the
streets in
Amsterdam.
It's a plastic unit with a steel hook at the top to move it.
And yes, this is all there is to it.
It's awfully close to just peeing on a lightpole
along the street.
"Performance anxiety" can be a problem.

Romania

I was coming into southern
Romania
by train from
Bulgaria.
That brings you into the vast
Romanian oil fields,
starting pretty soon after you cross the Danube River,
and continuing past Bucharest and Ploeşti to the
southern Carpathian Mountains.

So yes, you expect to see oil wells and pumps, and pipelines,
and power lines to run the pumps.

Turkey

It's a classic floor-mounted squatter with
integrated plumbing.
The shower head mounts on the wall of the room,
and the toilet drains the entire room.
The hose/sprayer also reaches the toilet itself
for hygenic purposes.

U.S.A.

Harry's Chocolate Shop
is actually a popular bar just off the Purdue University
campus in
West Lafayette,Indiana
(and just a few blocks from my home).

The men's toilet off the main bar area downstairs is
seatless and pretty nasty.

The
Corcoran Gallery of Art
is just a few blocks away from the White House in
Washington, D.C.
The Corcoran has some of the big old trumpet shaped urinals
from the 1930s or 1940s.
The patterned hexagonal tile floor also looks appropriate
for that period.

My cromwell-intl.com domain appeared in September, 2001,
although the Wayback Machine didn't notice its one enormous
Toilet of the World page until
January 17, 2002.
Some time soon after that I split it into categories,
and the collection has grown ever since.

In December, 2010 I registered the
toilet-guru.com
domain and moved the pages to a dedicated server.